Remembering Regrets

You drink too much for a couple hours on Saturday and though you enjoyed it in the moment, you pay the price of 16 hours on Sunday. You know better but…

You know you should stay up late and do that creative work that makes your heart happy and puts your mind at ease. Instead, game three of the XYZ sports final (American Idol finale, Dancing with the Stars, etc…) was on and so your dreams are stuffed in the Land of Someday once again. Of course in the morning you wish you’d have made some progress toward your dreams but it was so exciting in the moment and…

Ooh, there’s the apple-crisp! It’s warm from the oven, it’s cold outside and you’re still hungry from dinner. Sitting down and having an apple-crisp party sounds great (ahem, Ron) until you’ve eaten half the tray and find yourself sluggish the rest of the night and heavy the next morning. It seemed harmless–and it is made from apples…

We have to be so careful that we don’t live our lives avoiding both the wisdom we have and ultimately the life we want.

There’s a voice inside us, I call the scammer, that is more than equipped to help us get sidetracked from that wisdom. It’ll convince you in the moment that your actions are just. It’s quite skilled at propping you up in your poor decisions until you’ve consummated your denial of your best self through not-so-well-thought-out, diverting and occasionally stupid actions.

Doing what you know and learning from your regrets is the antidote to all of this. It establishes the very integrity that you’ll build your life from while it denies the scams that undermine who you are you at your best.